Naomi Watts To Play Ballet Legend Margot Fonteyn in New Romantic Drama

Two-time Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts has locked in her next film role, with a new report stating that she will star as ballet legend Margot Fonteyn in an upcoming biopic. This will revolve around her partnership with fellow iconic performer, Rudolf Nureyev.

Naomi Watts lands lead role as ballet legend in Margot & Rudi

Naomi Watts has been cast as ballerina Margot Fonteyn in a new biopic focused on the latter and Rudolf Nureyev, Margot & Rudi (via Variety Australia). Notably, the actress has a background in dance, having studied it before her acting career. In a statement about her role in the upcoming movie, she called it her “first love.” Watts added that she long harbored a dream to make a dance film.

Meanwhile, Alexandr Trush, a principal dancer with Hamburg Ballet, will breathe life into Nureyev. Additional cast members of the romantic drama include Richard E. Grant, Demián Bichir, and Harriet Walter, with more to be announced. Production has been scheduled to start in October.

Anthony Fabian, who previously helmed the Lesley Manville film, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, has been tapped to direct. Olivia Hetreed, who wrote the screenplay for that film and earned a BAFTA for her work on Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, will write the script.

In addition, Hetreed will produce the film for Sympathetic Ink alongside Mike Goodridge (Good Chaos) and Chris Coen. Furthermore, Thom Mount, Jeffrey Berg, and Andy Paterson will executive produce.

The narrative will focus on Fonteyn, who, at 42, realizes her career has ended. She meets 23-year-old rebellious Soviet defector Nureyev, who is “magnetic, explosive, unstoppable.” Subsequently, the pair forges a bond, becoming “icons of the Swinging Sixties,” with Fonteyn being “reborn” through Nureyev’s “wild energy.”

However, their bond will be tested through Fonteyn’s marriage and Nureyev’s affair with another dancer. Realizing they can only truly be together on stage and seeking to maintain their special relationship, they decide to risk it all on “one defining ballet.”

World sales agency, WestEnd Films, has boarded the film. They will introduce to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival.